Background

Millions of women and girls worldwide suffer some form of gender-based violence, be it domestic violence, rape, female genital mutilation/cutting, dowry-related killing, trafficking, sexual violence in conflict-related situations, or other manifestations of abuse. In fact, for women and girls 16-44 years old, gender-based violence is a major cause of death and disability ( About UNiTE: Fact Sheet, p. 1 http://endviolence.un.org/pdf/factsheets/about_unite.pdf;). Up to 70 per cent of women experience violence in their lifetime ( Violence Against Women: The Situation; http://endviolence.un.org/pdf/factsheets/unite_the_situation.pdf).

Violence against women persists in every country in the world as a pervasive violation of human rights and a major impediment to achieving gender equality. Such violence is unacceptable, whether perpetrated by the State and its agents or by family members or strangers, in the public or private sphere, in peacetime or in times of conflict. The UN Secretary-General has stated that as long as violence against women continues, we cannot claim to be making real progress towards equality, development, and peace ( “In-depth study on all forms of violence against women”, Report of the UN Secretary-General, 6 July 2006, p. 9;).

States have an obligation to protect women from violence, to hold perpetrators accountable and to provide justice and remedies to victims. Eliminating violence against women remains one of the most serious challenges of our time. The knowledge base and tools to prevent and eliminate violence against women developed over the past decade must be utilized more systematically and effectively to eliminate all forms of violence against women. This requires clear political will, outspoken, visible and unwavering commitment at the highest levels of leadership of the State and the resolve, advocacy and practical action of individuals and communities (ibid).

In order to support the Government of Georgia to meet its obligations undertaken on the international, regional and local levels inter alia in terms of eliminating violence against women and in particular domestic violence, with the generous support by the Swedish Government, the second phase of the UN Joint Programme for Gender Equality (hereinafter UNJP) has been launched in January 2016. The UNJP is implemented by UNDP, UN Women, and UNFPA.

The second phase of the Joint Programme continues to respond directly to the women’s rights and gender equality commitments undertaken by the Government of Georgia (GoG) on international and national levels, and will upscale the results achieved by the UNJP in previous phase and UN agencies in general, as well as other stakeholders in the area of gender equality and women’s empowerment in Georgia.

The Joint Programme addresses gender inequality in a coherent and comprehensive manner, covering a wide range of issues, such as political and economic empowerment of women, reducing violence against women and girls and promotion of women’s sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights.

The overall goal of the UNJP is to promote gender equality and women’s empowerment by means of strengthening capacities of government at both central and local levels and across the executive, legislative and judicial branches, engaging civil society and raising public awareness about gender equality. This ambitious goal will be achieved by the realization of the following outcomes:

• Enhanced women’s political and economic empowerment;
• Enabling environment to eliminate violence against women and girls, especially sexual and domestic violence, created in Georgia;
• Advanced gender equality and reproductive rights, including for the most vulnerable women, adolescents, and youth.

UN Women leads work under the second outcome of the UNJP being responsible for the creation of an enabling environment to eliminate violence against women and girls, especially domestic and sexual violence in Georgia. In order to achieve this outcome UN Women partners with different stakeholders inter alia the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia and the High Council of Justice to strengthen the capacity of different professionals to promote and protect women's human rights to a life free from VAWG and DV.  UN Women also strives to support prevention and disclosure of the instances of VAWG through various initiatives aimed at raising awareness on VAW/DV issues in the general public.

The importance of increasing awareness and understanding among the general public and professionals on different forms of manifestations of violence against women their causes and consequence was underlined by Ms. Dubravka Šimonovic, the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences, in her 2016 country report for Georgia (Report of the Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences on her mission to Georgia, 9 June 2016, see p.22).

Equipping different professionals playing a crucial role in preventing and combating violence against women with knowledge and understanding of psychological aspects of VAWG/DV phenomenon, its peculiarities and dire consequences will facilitate avoiding re-victimization of survivors and their better protection due to increased sensitivity towards the topic. The aforesaid can subsequently instill a sense of trust in victims/survivors in relevant professionals/institutions and result in increased disclosure of VAWG/DV incidents to relevant institutions.

Increasing awareness of the general public and different target groups inter alia on psychosocial causes and consequences and psychological aspects of violence can also be instrumental in the prevention of VAW/DV. The psychological effects experienced by victims are very similar to those experienced by victims of kidnapping. Post-traumatic stress disorder and Stockholm syndrome symptoms are also very common, and the psychological consequences of violence can be as serious as the physical effects as among others it can trigger depression, suicide attempts, psychotic episodes, slow recovery from mental illness (Preventing and combating domestic violence against women, A learning resource for training law-enforcement and justice officers, CoE, 2016, see p. 15;). Increased knowledge on the topic can facilitate dismantling the commonly held victim-blaming beliefs that make women responsible for their own safety and for the violence they suffer as required by CEDAW General recommendation No. 35 on gender-based violence against women (See para 35 (b)).

In light of the above considerations, UN Women plans to recruit a psychologist for the following objectives:

1. To assist different professionals inter alia investigators, prosecutors, judges, lawyers, employees of the State Fund for Protection and Assistance of (Statutory) Victims of Human Trafficking in elaborating guidance documents on psychological aspects of VAWG/DV as relevant to the sectors/professionals in question;
2. With the aim of increasing effectiveness of the work carried out by different professionals to conduct training on psychological aspects of VAWG/DV aimed at increasing their sensitivity and thus fostering the application of the victim-centered approach;
3. To participate in meetings aimed at raising awareness of different target groups inter alia representatives of ethnic minorities and private companies on psychological aspects of VAW/DV and its causes and consequences.

Duties and Responsibilities

• To elaborate guidance documents on psychological aspects of VAWG/DV for different professionals inter alia investigators, prosecutors, judges, lawyers, employees of the State Fund for Protection and Assistance of (Statutory) Victims of Human Trafficking as necessary;
• To conduct up to 30 training sessions for different professionals-investigators, judges, prosecutors or other professionals as necessary and elaborate respective reports regarding the conducted training;
• To Conduct up to 10 information meetings with different target groups inter alia ethnic minorities, representatives of private companies on psychological aspects of VAW/DV and submit the respective reports regarding the conducted meetings to UN Women.

Deliverables:

• Guidance documents on psychological aspects of VAWG/DV as relevant to the sectors/professionals inter alia investigators, prosecutors, judges, lawyers, employees of the State Fund for Protection and Assistance of (Statutory) Victims of Human Trafficking elaborated by 15 November 2019 (15 working days);
• Up to 30 training sessions for different professionals-investigators, judges, prosecutors or other professionals as necessary and the respective reports regarding the conducted training sessions submitted by 15 March 2020 (up to 40 working days);
• Up to 10 meetings with different target groups inter alia ethnic minorities, representatives of private companies on psychological aspects of VAW/DV conducted and the respective reports regarding the conducted meetings submitted to UN Women by 1 March 2020 (up to 15 working days).

Competencies

Core Values:

• Respect for Diversity;
• Integrity;
• Professionalism.

Core Competencies:

• Awareness and Sensitivity Regarding Gender Issues;
• Accountability;
• Creative Problem Solving;
• Effective Communication;
• Inclusive Collaboration;
• Stakeholder Engagement;
• Leading by Example.

Please visit this link for more information on UN Women’s Core Values and Competencies: http://www.unwomen.org/-/media/headquarters/attachments/sections/about%20us/employment/un-women-employment-values-and-competencies-definitions-en.pdf

Required Skills and Experience

Education: 

• Master’s degree in Medicine with specialization in psychotherapy/psychology.

Experience:

• At least five years of professional experience in psychotherapy/phycology;
• At least two years of experience in conducting trainings on DV, sexual violence issues;
• Past experience of work in an international environment will be an asset.

Language:

• Fluency in Georgian and English

Evaluation procedure:

The candidates will be evaluated against the following technical and financial criteria:

• Master’s degree in Medicine with specialization in psychotherapy/psychology (max 50 points);
• At least five years of professional experience in psychotherapy/psychology (max 150 points);
• At least two years of experience in conducting training on DV, sexual violence issues (max 120 points);
• Fluency in Georgian and English (max 30 points).

Maximum total technical score amounts to 350 points. Only candidates who have passed over the minimum qualification criteria and have accumulated at least 245 points out of maximum 350 under technical evaluation will qualify for the next stage i.e. evaluation of their financial proposals.

Evaluation of submitted financial offers will be done based on the following formula: S = Fmin / F * 150

S – score received on financial evaluation;

Fmin – the lowest financial offer out of all the submitted offers qualified over the technical evaluation round;

F – financial offer under consideration.

The winning candidate will be the candidate, who has accumulated the highest aggregated score (technical scoring + financial scoring).

Management arrangements:

The contractor will report to and work under direct supervision of UN Women Programme Analyst on Women’s Economic Empowerment and UN Women Programme Specialist, under overall guidance of UN Women Deputy Representative.

Management arrangements:

The contractor will report to and work under the direct supervision of the UN Women Programme Analyst and under the overall guidance of the UN Women Deputy Country Representative.

Financial arrangements:

Payment will be disbursed upon submission and approval of deliverables and certification by the UNJP / UN Women Programme Analyst that the services have been satisfactorily performed as specified below:

Payment will be disbursed upon submission of the reports on each of the conducted training /meeting or working days spent on the elaboration of different documents.   

Application submission package:

• CV;
• Duly completed Personal History Form PHF11 that can be downloaded from http://www.unwomen.org/en/about-us/employment;
• Financial Proposal - lump sum proposal/offer* in Georgian Lari (including a breakdown of this lump sum into the costs of respective deliverables with the indication of the fee for each of the training/ meeting and working day on different documents).

*The applicants are required to submit an aggregated financial offer (“aggregated financial offer” is the total sum of all financial claims of the candidate for accomplishment of all tasks spelled out in this ToR).

Only short-listed candidates will be contacted.

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